A new feature at EdutainingKids.com, our Buyer's Guides help make buying
choices easy for consumers. We test hundreds of children's
products and strive to keep up to date on the latest releases. Of
course, every family is unique. We can't please everyone. However,
we are able to select some special titles that are at the top of
our "edutainment" list--those that have that extra edge
in the categories of design, entertainment, education, and play
value.

Besides the
letter grades we give most products, reviews on this site often
come with a rating bar chart--a visual breakdown of how the
product rates in a number of categories. If you'd like to know
more about how software products are rated, click here.

As we test new
software and products, we will update these buyer's guides to
reflect current availability and up-to-date recommendations. These
guides are intended to help parents make sense of the overwhelming
choices available to them.

Video Games
for Teenagers: Nintendo DS

The games we recommend stand out for multi-level and
extensive gameplay and/or ease of use.

Top Ten DS
Games/Series for the HardcoreFight, game lovers! For everlasting peace!

By Curtis Montgomery

Still going
strong five years and three models later, the DS is shaping up to
have one of the most well-stocked game libraries around. The reason?
More than any other system, past or present, the dual-screened
portable, with its button-based and stylus-driven control schemes,
seems to have something for everyone. Consumers range from game-shy
grandparents to the most grizzled alien-blasting veterans.

This accessibility has proven something of a problem for the latter
group, though; the rise of the casual game market makes it easy to
fear the prospect that room will soon be made on the endangered
species list for hardcore games. Here are ten series/stand-alone
games that would love to prove your fears unfounded. You’ll
undoubtedly have little trouble in thinking of others; this wasn’t
the easiest of lists to compile, and there are a lot of deserving
snubs to choose from. Ports and remakes aren’t included, but there
are some treasures in that pile, too.

10

Mega Man ZXEntries: Mega Man ZX, Mega Man ZX Advent

“Another six months, another Mega Man game,” you might say
to yourself, and, in truth, you wouldn’t be far off. Mega Man is
a video game icon for a reason, though, and the games in the ZX
series are determined to remind you how he achieved that status
by providing the fast, twitch-based action, great level design,
memorable bosses, and well-stocked arsenal that made Mega Man a
hit in the first place. It’s all placed within an interconnected
2D world, a first for the Mega Man series, and although
exploration definitely takes a backseat to the action, it has
the effect of making the world feel much more organic. The ZX
series doesn’t try to start a revolution, but instead lends
credence to that timeless saying, “if it ain’t broken, give it a
little bit of love and polish and presto.” Or something like
that.

Mixing the tactical precision of strategy-RPGs with the
frenetic action of top-down arcade shooters, this could very
well be the most hardcore title on the list if you gauge
“hardcore” by a game’s ability to eat you alive if you don’t
know what you’re doing; skip past the extensive tutorial at
your own peril. Despite the game’s frightening learning
curve (learning hairpin?), it’s an incredibly fun,
rewarding, and unique experience that you just won’t find
elsewhere. As you move your wisp around with the stylus,
dodging a blitzkrieg of shrapnel and priming enemies for a
pounding, you’ll find a sense of accomplishment around every
corner as you gradually master the game’s mechanics.

Collecting and raising your own personal army of monsters is
just an incomparably satisfying experience; the Pokemon craze
proved that to the world. It was actually an ancestor of DQM:
Joker, Dragon Quest V (a Japan-only title until the DS remake
was released in North America just a few months ago), that
introduced the monster-catching mechanic, and the genre has done
plenty of evolving (pun not intended) since then. You’ll travel
between the various islands that comprise the game’s world,
gathering gems that will prove you’ve got what it takes to
compete in a grand tournament. Along the way, you’ll meet and
fight the monsters that inhabit each island and convince them to
join your ranks by showing them how macho you are. You’ll also
find yourself hopelessly addicted to the idea of making
ever-stronger monsters by synthesizing weaker ones. Joker looks
great, too, sporting the charming cel-shaded look of the
Playstation 2's Dragon Quest VIII. It all comes together for a
game that has little trouble sinking its teeth into many hours
of your life.

A music-driven game that is about as far from a me-too Guitar
Hero clone as you can get, Rhythm Heaven is equal parts quirky
and infectious. It features a large gallery of games, each one
having all the surreal charm of a WarioWare microgame (minus the
“micro”: a round of most of these games lasts upwards of a
minute or two), and songs that are absolutely guaranteed to
crawl into your mind and nest there. You won’t be hammering out
notes and trying your best to mimic the song; the developers
suggest thinking of your DS as brand-new sort of musical
instrument for the purposes of the game. You’ll feel like you’re
really genuinely contributing to the song as you carry out your
designated role, tapping, flicking, and sliding the stylus to
bring the piece to its beautiful conclusion (or flub it
miserably). The game also deserves special mention as one that
you and Aunt Bertie can both enjoy; it’s easy to play and
difficult to master. Just make sure you bring your sense of
rhythm.

[For more information, or to buy: Rhythm Heaven
for the DS
at Amazon.com]

6 The World Ends With You

At the rate Square-Enix has been known to pound out
remakes, compilations, and sequels in recent years, you’d
almost think they’ve sucked their well of ideas dry. WEWY
cordially invites you to think again, breaking the mould and
ditching convention in almost every way possible. This
fast-paced action-RPG features battles that take place on
both screens simultaneously, and you’re going to have to get
comfortable with the idea of swiping the stylus and tapping
buttons in perfect harmony if you hope to master the system
(or, if you’re not feeling particularly inclined to give
life as a four-eyed octopus a shot, you can have the AI ease
you into things). It also has a sharply-written plot set in
modern Tokyo that deals with trends, survival,
individuality, inner demons, and teamwork. There are so many
new bits and bobs that WEWY wants you to get used to that it
can actually be somewhat terrifying at first, and that alone
earns it a place on this list. Is creativity dead? Don’t
think so!

Tailor-made for the old-school RPG masochist crowd, each
entry in this pair of hardcore dungeon crawlers has you
exploring a vast labyrinth with a crew of specialists you’ve
personally assembled from a nice list of class choices. You’ll
draw your own maps with the stylus, battle monsters that don’t
care in the least how much of a clumsy greenhorn you are, flee
for your frail little life from monsters that REALLY mean
business, and become engrossed in a world that pays attention to
the little details and emphasizes telling over showing,
immersing you in that Dungeons & Dragons sort of way. This is
nutritious food for the imagination, and is best served with a
generous helping of patience and persistence.

Like Rhythm Heaven, Layton is that rare gem that can
simultaneously be accessible enough to allow someone who’s never
played a video game before to jump right in but challenging and
compelling enough that long-time gamers can easily recognize
that it’s something special. This mystery-solving puzzler
starring a delightful man with a top hat and his bright young
assistant gives you mysteries aplenty to unravel in a town
populated by inhabitants who are anything but cooperative. This
makes things difficult for Layton but fun for you, as this is
where the real gameplay steps in; each townsperson wants you to
prove your mental mettle by solving logic-driven puzzles of the
sort you’d find in brain-teasing puzzle books before they’ll
consider opening up to you a bit, and the result is a game that
challenges you to think logically and creatively as you revel in
the game’s endearing setting.

If you’ve been praying every day to the 8-bit gods for a
proper tribute to video games in the 80s, get off your knees and
go on a pilgrimage to your local game store. The title might
lead you to believe that this is just another random collection
of old games, but don’t be fooled: this gallery of “classic”
titles is comprised of 100% original games that faithfully
recreate (and poke fun at) the games of old, from platformers to
space shooters to RPGs. Including everything from translations
laden with Engrish gobbledygook and non-sequiturs to monthly
issues of a fictional game magazine that contain previews, tips,
and cheats, glorious nostalgia is everywhere. Best of all, no
cartridge-blowing is required.

This is the DS entry in the storied Contra franchise, which has
been thrilling gamers since the days of the NES with screens
full of bullets, badguys, and awesome-looking bosses. It’s
obvious that the developers at WayForward, despite not being the
original creative force behind the series, were committed to
delivering an absolutely authentic Contra experience. We have
missiles, machine guns, and spread shots. We have a ride on a
runaway rocket followed by a battle with a giant robot. We have
delightfully atrocious one-liners delivered by oily,
muscle-bound men. It’s everything about Contra you know and love
with that extra touch of modern love and care. “Let’s attack
aggressively!”

Castlevania
Entries: Dawn of Sorrow, Portrait of Ruin, Order of Ecclesia

Few series are as venerated by the gaming populace as
Castlevania, and there’s a very good reason for that. Where
there’s Castlevania, there’s challenge, a castle full of demons
culled from every corner of mythology, and a certain
well-dressed vampire named Dracula (you might have heard of him
before) and his bosom buddy, Death himself, serving as the
series’s primary antagonists. The three DS titles continue the
recent Castlevania trend of giving you a sprawling map to
explore, a staggering variety of weapons and abilities that you
can discover, and extra modes that promise to make your replays
worthwhile. You won’t find a general consensus on which title is
the best of the three DS installments; what you will find,
however, is 2-D action of the highest calibre no matter which
you pick.

Also Consider:

The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Product DescriptionIn The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, Link returns as a
humble train engineer. Before long, the train tracks, aptly
called Spirit Tracks, begin to disappear and Link is confronted
by an evil figure. This time, he'll be accompanied on his
journey by princess Zelda herself, a series' first. Spirit
Tracks is controlled completely by the DS touch screen,
aside from two buttons. Players trek through puzzle-laden
dungeons, some of which can be very challenging. When players
aren't fighting evil, they are traveling around the world on
their train and helping people out, whether by transporting fish
to a hungry man or bringing a carpenter to fix a bridge. The
train controls are rather simple, but can be cumbersome in tight
situations.

Recommended for: Ages 10 and up, for motor skills
and the challenge level of puzzles.

Why do we recommend this game? The Legend of Zelda: Spirit
Tracks is the complete package for Zelda newcomers and fans
alike. Many improvements have been made from its predecessor (The
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass), and it provides the player
with a rich and surprisingly deep experience.